NIHR SPHR Guidance on Systems Approaches to Local Public Health Evaluation. Part 2: What to consider when planning a systems evaluation.

Systems thinking can help you evaluate activities aimed at improving population health and reducing health inequalities. In Part 1 of this Guidance, we introduced systems thinking. In Part 2, we now consider the circumstances when it makes sense to adopt a systemsinformed approach to evaluation. Decisions about when and how to conduct a systemsinformed evaluation should take into account the evidence needs of decision makers. Evaluation planning also involves considering pragmatic issues such as the resources and skills available for evaluation. Once an evaluator has a clear idea of what the research is supposed to inform and what resources are available, it is time to consider the methodological options and design the evaluation. Figure 1 below summarises these steps.In this Guidance, we introduce you to six different types of methodologies used in different systems evaluations. These types of methods have different, but overlapping, purposes and can be used to address different types of evaluation question. In common with much research, systems-informed evaluations face the challenge of producing findings that will really help improve decision-making. We provide some practical tips on how to report systems-informed findings in ways that decision-makers find useful and accessible: eg avoiding conclusions that focus exclusively on methodological issues or that simply restate that an intervention’s impacts were ‘very complex.’Clear and concise messaging that keeps in mind what the evaluation was meant to inform in the first place are crucial.